Telling Tales
by Raz
Summary: AU. YAOI. Searching for a missing teenager leads Leon into a world that is shifting away from any he recognises. And all he has to go on are the words Kingdom Hearts.
1. Chapter 1

Not mine. Not ever going to be mine. Probably because I'd abuse it terribly by inserting Leon/Cloud and Sora/Riku yaoi like I'm going to do here and have most of the cast go psycho. Because I decided that if I was going to do an AU, I was _really_ going to do an AU. This is going to get warped.

Telling Tales

Chapter One: Of The Lost And The Found

"Excuse me."

The voice was soft and somewhat timid in tone, yet it still managed to carry with ease across the room. Probably, Leon reflected, because said room was completely empty save for himself, several inefficient fans that were blowing more of his paperwork around the room than cool air, and the stranger. Shifting slightly on the wooden backed office chair, Leon tilted it back to a more upright angle as he spun away from the wall to confront the newcomer. In truth, acknowledging the speaker was an action mainly done out of curiosity. Visitors were rare in Leon's office. Obviously word about his general demeanour had finally got out.

Just inside the doorway to Leon's office stood a young boy. He could have been anywhere between about twelve and fifteen in age, Leon reckoned. His small build and short stature weren't helped by the oversized clothes that hung off his frame in that stupid street style all the middle class kids were adopting in the hope of looking like they came from the ghetto. Brown hair spiked in every direction, lacking the slightly more ordered style of Leon's own choppy chocolate strands. What struck him most about the kid were the huge blue eyes that were staring at him with a mixture of hope and terror. Leon couldn't remember the last time he saw eyes as blue as that in anyone older than a few weeks.

Stepping further into the room with no small amount of trepidation, the kid began to shift his weight restlessly from foot to foot. "Excuse me. You're Squall Leonheart, right?"

Leon's blue-grey eyes narrowed as he frowned, feeling the scar that cut neatly across his nose and forehead stiffly protest the gesture. "It's Leon," he said in a low voice that left no room for argument.

Or so he thought for the kid's face crumpled in confusion. "Really? They told me you were called Squall Leonheart. They said you were a SeeD." Sensing that he wasn't making the situation any better the kid squeezed his eyes shut. "I need your help!" he forced out before dropping into a deep bow holding his clasped hands above his head in a pleading gesture.

Leon raised an eyebrow as he leant his elbows on the desk in front of him. The lack of any paperwork on its surface reminded him that work had not exactly been plentiful in recent weeks. "You need my help," Leon repeated in a flat tone. "You look a little young and innocent to want someone dead."

The kid looked up at Leon in shock, his body still twisted in the contortions of earlier. "Why would I want you to kill someone?"

Leon resisted the urge to sigh. "What do you think SeeD are normally recruited to do? We're mercenaries."

The boy straightened. "You're the best there is though, right? I need you to find someone for me."

This time Leon did sigh as he leant back in his chair and swung slightly from side to side. "Then get the police."

"The police won't listen to me!" the boy protested. "So I thought I'd try you. After all, even if you're killing someone, you'd have to find them first, right? This way, you just … skip that part."

Leon did his best to fight the desire to sigh again, instead pinching the bridge of his nose as though warding off a headache. He hated dealing with kids. They had no idea about how the world worked. "If the police won't listen to you, what makes you think I will?"

"Because I know something's wrong! Please! I'll even pay you if I have to!"

Leon dropped his hand in order to not obstruct the quelling glare he levelled on the kid. "Let's get one thing straight. If, and I do mean _if_, I choose to work for you; then I will be getting paid for it. And don't think I won't charge you exactly the same price I charge everyone else. If you can't afford it, you go somewhere else."

Rather than appear intimidated, the kid's expression brightened. "You mean you'll help me? Seriously?"

Leon rolled his eyes. "How much can you afford?"

The kid rummaged around in his pockets before pulling out a crumpled handful of dollars. "I've got two hundred saved up."

_Two hundred?_ Leon tried not to scoff. The teenager in his office was never going to get anywhere if that was all the money he had. With yet another sigh, Leon leaned forwards across the desk to reach for a blank notepad and pen. "For two hundred I'll dig around for a couple of days and let you know if you've got enough of a case to take to the police. And that's better than you'd get elsewhere, so I'd consider it if I were you."

To Leon's inner surprise, the kid actually appeared to do just that as he bit his lower lip and began to chew it absently as he studied the money in his hands. Then he looked up at Leon and again the SeeD noticed the expression in those eyes that bordered on desperation. "But you'll really look, right?" the kid said. "For those two days, you'll really try hard to find him?"

Some small shred of conscience deep within Leon was trying to get his curiosity to acknowledge that there was clearly an interesting story here if the boy's obvious distress was any indication. He squashed the rogue piece of empathy with his usual brutal efficiency and treated the kid to a brief nod. "For two days, this case will have my undivided attention."

Leon was treated to a somewhat watery grin from his new client as the kid crossed the room to drop the money on Leon's desk. Clicking the tip of his pen, Leon gestured to the other chair in the room as he pulled his notepad closer. "Take a seat…"

"Sora," the kid said when he saw Leon pause for a name. "I'm Sora."

"Sora," Leon confirmed. "Perhaps you'd better tell me just what has brought you here. And it would be best to start from the beginning."

_In the beginning there had been three. Sora, Riku and Kairi; the closest friends you could imagine. They never seemed to be without one another and where you found one, the other two were surely nearby. At least until that particular summer when Kairi had turned twelve and then vanished from the face of the Earth. They never found the body, but it didn't stop the man who did it from confessing. He'd killed a string of girls and some malicious twist of fate had brought him to the woods where the three friends played together on that one day when Sora and Riku had been late to join Kairi. Following her death, Sora and Riku had refused to retreat into their individual grief and instead had become closer than ever: two halves of the same soul in different bodies. Nothing would come between them._

_But a few months ago, Sora had noticed a change in Riku. The older boy had become withdrawn, which although wasn't anything new to most of the people around him, wasn't something that Sora had ever found directed at himself before. Riku would vanish for hours, sometimes even the best part of a day and never speak a word about where he had been. Sora had been confused at first; then hurt until worry began to take over. This wasn't like Riku, he'd reasoned, and he decided to make a final effort to get his friend to confide in him._

_He'd asked Riku to meet him in the cave they'd adopted as their secret hideaway as children and the other boy had agreed. Once there though, Riku had seemed restless, unable to keep still and constantly pacing about the small space. Sora had felt his questions die in his throat as he watched his friend move about._

_Finally Riku had turned to him, his mouth open as though about to speak before he frowned and turned away again, closing his mouth once more. Sora had been about to speak into the silence when Riku beat him to it. "Sora … ever heard of Kingdom Hearts?"_

_Sora had blinked in puzzlement. "Kingdom what?"_

"_Never mind, it's not important." Moving to the far side of the cave, Riku had paused to run his hand over the crude drawings that had been carved into the stone surface by Sora, Kairi and himself as children. "If … if you had the chance to make it so everything was as it should be … not all messed up and wrong … if you could gain everything you ever wanted, would you risk it?"_

"_What?" Sora had frowned. This sort of questioning was not like Riku at all. "What are you talking about Riku?"_

"_I'm talking about this. What if you could make everything like how it's supposed to be?"_

_Sora had pulled a doubtful face. "But you can't. You can't control everything about your life, it doesn't work that way."_

"_But if you could," Riku had pressed. "Would you?"_

_There had been something almost frightening about Riku's expression at that moment and it had made Sora stop before he spoke. Instead of answering the question, Sora had laughed in a forced and nervous manner as he attempted to change the subject. "What's up with you Riku? You're acting all weird, even for you."_

_Riku had paused before slumping down to sit facing Sora on the opposite side of the cave. "I guess you're right," he'd said with a tired smile. "Sorry."_

_Sora had simply smiled the whole previous conversation away. The next morning Riku was gone._

Leon had paused once Sora had finished speaking, tapping the tip of his pen on the ring-binding of his notepad as he glanced over what he had written. One thing stood out. "Kingdom Hearts," Leon repeated. "What is that?"

On the opposite side of the desk, Sora shrugged, holding out his arms helplessly before dropping them back to lie loosely in his lap. "I'd never heard of it until that afternoon," the teenager confessed, hunching his shoulders as he leaned forwards. A slight frown creased his young forehead as Sora gazed down at his interlaced fingers. "I thought maybe it was some kind of cult or something that he'd joined, but when I tried to find out more about it …"

"You couldn't find anything," Leon finished for him, waiting for the bob of brown spiky hair before continuing. Dropping his notepad back onto the desk, Leon tilted his chair backwards as he narrowed his eyes in thought. "Doesn't necessarily mean it's not a cult. It could just be something underground."

Sora's head rose as he stared wide-eyed at Leon. "You mean like a secret society?"

Leon shrugged one shoulder. "It's a theory. It could be something else entirely. A place, a book, some sort of code name or phrase. It could also be completely unrelated to your friend's disappearance." He glanced over at Sora and saw that the kid looked completely crushed. "It's a start though," he heard himself saying.

Sora just seemed to sag with relief. "So what's next?"

Leon pushed his chair back from the desk and rose to his feet. "If it's okay with his parents, I'll have a look around Riku's room. See if he left any clues behind."

"Riku doesn't live with his parents anymore. He moved out when he turned sixteen."

Leon stopped and turned back to look at Sora in confusion. "Then just how old are you?"

Sora grinned. "We're both seventeen."

Leon knew he didn't manage to keep the look of complete shock from his face. Seventeen? At seventeen, Leon had been a newly graduated SeeD. The kid seemed so much more than a mere ten years younger than himself. With a shake of his head, Leon picked up his notepad again and tried to remember how to act like a professional. "Well if you can give me his address, I'll head over there this afternoon. I don't suppose he gave you a key?"

"Huh? Oh sure," Sora said as he pulled a vast collection of keychains from his pocket and began to rapidly sort through them. He then unclipped one with a small silver crown at one end and a pair of keys at the other. "The bronze one is to get into the apartment block, and the silver will open the door to Riku's place. It's number twenty-two. The apartment block's in the Second District, next to the Hotel."

Leon nodded as he accepted the key. "I know the one. I'll provide a full written progress report for each day, detailing what I've found. Should anything exceptional come to light, I'll notify you by phone as soon as it's possible."

Sora also clambered to his feet, pausing to look hopefully at Leon. "Do you … think you'll find anything?"

For some reason, it was harder than usual to answer. Leon shrugged and looked down at the floor. "It's too early to tell. I'll certainly try."

Sora's shoulders slumped slightly before he straightened and smiled at Leon. "Thank you."

For some reason, Leon really didn't like holding the kid's gaze. He busied himself with grabbing a jacket so as to not appear unnecessarily rude. "Whatever. I'd better get started. If this is only going to be two days, you'll no doubt want something to show for it."

Leon's office was pretty much central to Traverse Town, being located over quite a popular café in the First District which was always the busiest of Traverse Town's three main districts. The stairs to his office led down to a small alleyway that opened out into the central square. Leon paused for a moment amongst the bustle and consulted his watch. The time was currently a little after three in the afternoon so Leon reasoned that should Riku's apartment fail to turn up any promising leads as he suspected might be the case, he'd still have time to stop off at the Police Headquarters in Second District on his way back to the office. When he'd been training to become a SeeD, his closest rival had been Seifer Almassy although Seifer had never qualified as a SeeD. He'd gone to work for the police instead and despite the frequent clashes they had both had as students, over the years they had been able to form a sort of truce that saw the pair help the other out with information when the need arose. If this Kingdom Hearts really was some sort of group, Seifer would be able to let him know if it was something the police were keeping tabs on.

Forgoing his car, Leon hitched up the collar of his jacket as protection against the chill wind and began to weave his way through the crowds that filled the streets of the First District. It would be about a half-hour walk to get to Riku's apartment in Second and Leon could really use the time to think.

First and foremost in his mind was the ongoing problem of just what he was expecting to uncover here. For all Leon knew, there wasn't even a case. This Riku could have simply decided to take off for a couple of days or gotten distracted by a new lover. Leon could very well make his way into the apartment to find a slightly confused teenager demanding to know who he was and why he was trespassing. Yes, according to Sora, Riku had been acting oddly before he vanished, but again that didn't have to mean anything. Perhaps the previously close friends were growing apart and Sora hadn't realised he was being given the brush off.

Even as he considered these options, Leon was aware of the 'but' hovering in the back of his mind. Yes, it was all entirely possible, but … Leon wasn't quite sure how to articulate just what came after that. But … Sora seemed too aware of his friend to not have noticed if Riku was merely trying to end their friendship. But … there were the somewhat strange issues Sora had faithfully reported the two of them discussing before Riku vanished. But … Sora hadn't been able to find out from anyone where Riku was. But … something about the words Kingdom Hearts disturbed him. Leon couldn't quite shake the feeling he'd heard them before, or maybe read about them.

None of that was going to solve a case however, although it was presenting Leon with some ideas of where to start proving or disproving that this Riku had simply chosen to run off somewhere. Any other paths for this investigation to follow would no doubt present themselves once Leon really started looking into things. Although … two days: he really wasn't sure just what Sora expected him to do.

Leon reached the large gates that marked the border between the first and second districts. Both the large wooden gates were open to allow for the steady flow of pedestrians and traffic. Leon passed through them with little trouble. While First District had become the financial hub of Traverse Town with the bulk of businesses and shops relocating there, Second District still managed to consist of a mixture of residential areas and independently run boutiques and bars. Leon was quietly impressed with the idea that Riku could afford an apartment in this area, even with a SeeD salary, Leon's budget wouldn't see him able to move out of Third District without running into serious cash problems.

Leon found the apartment block with little trouble. There was only the one hotel in Second District after all and one side was taken up with a building that clearly wasn't apartments, but appeared to be some sort of workshop or factory. Leon studied it before deciding it would clearly be renovated into expensive apartments within two years. Turning his attention back to the apartments, he located the neatly written _Nakamura R._ next to number twenty-two. Experimentally, Leon pressed the buzzer beside the name to see if anyone would answer. After all, there was little point in heading inside if Riku had already returned from wherever he'd run off to.

After the second ring went unanswered, Leon rummaged in his pocket for the keys Sora had provided earlier and unlocked the door to the foyer. Stepping inside, Leon crossed immediately to the row of mailboxes, each engraved with an apartment number. Twenty-two's was overflowing with mail and Leon made a mental note to try and locate a key for the box inside the teenager's apartment. There might be some sort of lead contained within all the inevitable junk mail.

There were the options of stairs or a lift to reach the second floor and Leon opted for the stairs automatically. It wasn't as though he was heading up to the top of the building and Leon saw little point in being lazy. The stairwell was clean, well lit and minimally decorated in neutral tones. Reaching the second floor revealed that the colour scheme had been carried on into the main corridor as well and so rather than admire it, Leon strode briskly along the floor until he reached apartment twenty-two.

Unlocking the door and stepping inside didn't raise any immediate shouts of alarm, so Leon carefully closed the door behind him before turning to take in the apartment fully. It was of a fairly reasonable size, consisting of a large living area with a small alcove serving as a kitchenette and two doors leading off that Leon assumed lead to both the bathroom and bedroom. The contents were tidy and ordered, meaning that had Riku left under duress, any mess that resulted had been cleaned up. All the lights in the room were on, but that didn't necessarily mean anything either.

Pulling a pair of leather gloves from his jacket pocket, Leon slid them on before advancing further into the room. The living area was sparsely furnished with a large chocolate brown sofa, a television set with several games consoles and neatly stacked games, a low coffee table and a potted plant by the window. Various band posters hung on the plain white walls alongside flyers for upcoming gigs. Leon glanced at them, recognising only a few of the more-well known bands, the majority appeared to be local bands and unsigned acts. Aside from a prevalence of what looked like hard rock, it was pretty much what he expected from a teenaged boy. There were more flyers on the coffee table alongside a couple of gaming and movie magazines. The television had been unplugged, which Leon found strange considering all the lights had been left on, but he didn't pause before walking into the kitchenette.

The surfaces were clean of both dishes and leftovers, having been wiped down recently. The hob was equally immaculate and a quick look inside the small fridge/freezer revealed an apple, a couple Tupperware containers of leftovers, a half-eaten tub of Chunky Monkey ice-cream and several large bottles of Mountain Dew. Leon was mildly surprised to find even one item of fruit and veg inside Riku's fridge, but again he didn't see how it could be important. He closed the fridge and checked the other cupboards, finding a neatly concealed washing machine and waste-bin that was about half full of various empty containers.

Leaving the main room behind, Leon opened the first of the two doors and found the bathroom. It was tiled in white and the only real colour came from the bright blue towels that were draped neatly on the warming rail beside the bath. Again the lights were all on and the room was pretty much immaculate. No bloodstains or bodies in the bath. On impulse, Leon turned on the hot tap and watched the mirror in front of the sink slowly fog up. No hasty messages or warnings written on the mirror either, although he did spot a small smiley face in the bottom left-hand corner. If anything, its presence relieved Leon; it was good to see evidence that this Riku was actually capable of acting his age. Leon turned off the tap once more and made his way to the final room.

It was a bedroom as Leon suspected, decorated in cool and calming shades of blue and once again left with all the lights blazing. One wall of the room was completely taken up with bookshelves and Leon scanned the contents. Mostly classic literature and history books with a few music biographies as well. On a much smaller shelf nearer the bed was a collection of manga, mostly dealing with ninjas by the looks of things. A quick check of the closet and chest of drawers showed neatly folded clothes with no obviously gaps to indicate that Riku had packed an overnight bag before leaving. The desk in front of the window had several photos displayed on the walls nearby. Leon spotted Sora's smiling face in most of them, usually alongside a more serious looking teenager with green eyes and almost silver hair – Riku according to Sora's descriptions. There were also a couple of other teenagers and Leon made a note to ask Sora if he could identify them. He was pretty certain Sora would be able to considering Sora was in most of those photos as well.

As Leon turned to leave the bedroom, something glinted from underneath the glare of the bedside light. Crossing over to the small cabinet, Leon spotted another set of keys, this time also containing a third much smaller key that must be for the mailbox. He picked them up and slid them into his pocket before leaving the apartment, taking a final glance around to check everything else was as he'd found it. Should the police end up getting involved, Leon knew they'd be far from appreciative to find he'd left things disordered.

Once outside the apartment, Leon slid Sora's set of keys into his pocket before jogging back down the stairs. When Leon re-entered the foyer, he made his way immediately over to the mailbox and used the key to collect the large stack of mail inside. A glance at his watch as Leon left the building revealed that the time was a little before six. Seifer would most likely have headed home from the police station by now, so Leon decided to leave visiting the police for tomorrow. With any luck, he might actually have some information for them.

Rather than head all the way back to his office, fighting against the flood of people who were now all returning home, Leon stopped off in a small café to examine the mail over coffee. After a few abortive attempts by the young, female waitress to have a conversation with him, Leon was left alone with his coffee to go through the various letters.

The bulk were clearly junk mail and Leon tossed those casually to one side. There was a postcard displaying a beach scene of Destiny Islands from a Tidus with a mostly illegible message that Sora could hopefully translate. Leon moved that into a new pile and shortly added two handwritten letters with postmarks destroyed by rain. Finally, Leon found a reminder from the local chemists that the film Riku had dropped off for development was now ready for collection. That made him pause as he checked the dates. The letter had been sent the day after Riku had gone missing so the film must have been handed in not long before that. Leon drained the last of his coffee while tapping the note thoughtfully against the table surface. The chemist wasn't far; he could easily stop in on his way back to the office.

Decided on a course of action, Leon rose from his chair and gathered up the handwritten letters and postcard along with the reminder. The rest of the junk mail he left on the table for the waitress to clear in addition to his empty cup. Sliding the collection of papers into the pocket on the inside of his jacket, Leon idly glanced out across the street as he exited the coffee shop.

A young woman with brown hair tied in a long braid was standing directly opposite him, watching him closely. She was wearing a long pink dress with a faded red denim jacket that should have clashed terribly but somehow didn't. Heavy brown boots completed the mish-mash of styles, though Leon was more drawn to her eyes. Even from this distance he could tell they were green. Seeing he had noticed her attention she smiled and raised a single finger to her lips. Frowning, Leon made to step closer to her, but a loud blaring horn reminded him that he had just walked out into a busy street. He hurriedly stepped back, just missing the car that sped past and when he glanced back, the woman was gone.

Leon made it to the chemists without further mishap and silently handed the reminder note to the girl working in the photo lab. She attempted a smile in his direction, but it quickly withered under the force of Leon's glare. The girl hurried away and returned soon with the packet of photos, all but thrusting them into Leon's hands before running away again. Leon took the photos with a quiet snort of amusement before turning to head out of the door, opening the packet to examine the contents as he walked.

The first fifteen or so were pretty much what he'd have expected from a teenager. Several shots of the same group of teenagers that Leon had seen in photo frames scattered about Riku's apartment. There were also more than a few poorly taken photos of various bands performing live, obviously taken with one hand while dancing or being jostled by the rest of the appreciative crowd. It was difficult to really make out anything from those shots, so Leon simply flipped past them.

Then he reached several shots of a cityscape that Leon failed to immediately recognise. It could be part of Traverse Town, closer to the suburbs and away from the central three districts that he was familiar with. The streets were all rain-washed and irritatingly anonymous with their generic chainstores and red-brown bricks. There was a figure in all of them, slightly blurry in some shots due to the fact that the pictures had clearly been taken while moving, but even in the clearer shots it was clear that the subject had no awareness of the photographer. It was a teenaged girl, mostly seen from the back, but with a couple of profile shots as well.

Leon frowned as he examined the photos. There was an obsessive quality to them that could well have explained the mood swings that Sora had noted in his now absent friend. Perhaps Riku had run off to be with this girl, or simply to find out more about her? The first thing to do would be to identify the girl and hopefully she could then lead Leon to Riku. Leon felt what could have been the traces of a smile on his face. Less than twenty-four hours on the job and he had found a promising lead for Sora.

Leon was scanning through a couple of local books filled with photos of the various parts of Traverse Town, looking for somewhere that matched Riku's photos, when Sora came through the door in a frantic burst of energy.

"I got your message! Did you find something? Do you think you know where he is?"

Leon just sat and waited until Sora had run out of questions and breath. Then he gestured the now deflated teen towards an empty chair. "Take a seat."

Sora collapsed into the chair, still sucking in oxygen like it was going out of style and trying to find enough energy to lean forwards enough to continue his interrogation.

Closing the book he had been flipping through, Leon reached for the photos that had caught his interest and spun them across the desk to rest in front of Sora. "These appear to have been taken by Riku shortly before he went missing. Can you identify the girl? It's possible she knows where your friend is."

Blinking, Sora leaned forwards to pick up the photos. He'd barely done more than glance at the first one when a frown appeared on his face. The look of disquiet increased as he flipped through the rest of the photos at increasing speed. "It's not … it can't be."

Intrigued by the reaction, Leon raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

Sora didn't seem to hear him. "I mean … sure it looks like her, but it just _can't_." Pausing on one photo, Sora raised it up closer to his face before seeming to sag. The pile of photographs fluttered through his fingers to land on the floor. Slowly blinking his eyes, Sora looked across at Leon. "I don't understand," he told the SeeD. "It's just not possible."

"What?" Leon asked. "Do you know who the girl is?"

Sora glanced briefly down at the photos now on the floor by his oversized shoes. "Yeah, but she can't be here."

"Why not?" Leon pressed.

"Because Kairi's dead!" Sora yelled. "She can't be wandering around because she was murdered five years ago! They caught the guy that did it! He gave a full confession."

Leon paused for a moment in shock before recovering. "Perhaps this is a case of mistaken identity. This girl could merely resemble your childhood friend."

Sora shook his head defiantly. "That's what I thought with the first couple of photos, but look at this one." Sora hung off the chair to scrabble amongst the photos on the floor before grabbing the one he was obviously after. "See? You can see Kairi's birthmark. A heart-shaped purple mark just on her shoulder blade. And those earrings she's wearing? Riku and I gave them to her for her twelfth birthday." Sora frowned. "But if she's still alive, why hasn't she got in contact?"

"Perhaps this is what Riku left to discover," Leon thought aloud. He glanced back down at his desk. "Well if we want to know more, we'd better start by finding out just why a man would confessing to killing a girl when he clearly hasn't." Leon caught Sora's gaze. "You know the name of the guy that said he did it?"

Sora nodded. "As if I'd forget," he said. "Cloud Strife."

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

Telling Tales

Chapter Two: Of The Categorised And The Caged

"The Hades Institute For The Mentally Disturbed," Sora read aloud as he stared at the bronzed plaque with a look of supreme uncertainty. "Um, why are we here?"

"I'm here to ask Cloud Strife why he'd claim to have killed someone who's still apparently very much alive," Leon answered. "You're here because you insisted on tagging along."

Sora pouted, a gesture that made him look even younger. "I am paying you, you know." There was a pause as the teenager studied the stone building for a few more moments. "Why didn't he just go to a normal prison?"

Leon shrugged, staring at the barred windows with a faint sense of disbelief that something so gothic and clichéd was actually allowed to run as an asylum. Wasn't the justice system meant to be all sympathetic and understanding to the criminally insane these days? "The courts decided that he wasn't sane enough to be held responsible for his actions. It was a closed trial, so I don't know any more than that." Glancing down at his watch, Leon sighed. "Come on."

Sora hastened to catch up with Leon as the older man strode towards the entrance. "Where are we going?"

Leon glanced over his shoulder. "I made an appointment to speak to Dr Hades, the owner of the institute. We'll see what he can tell us about Strife and the murder case and, hopefully speak to Strife himself, if the man is in someway lucid."

Sora looked a touch pale at the thought of conversing with an insane serial killer, but there was a resolute expression on his face that dissuaded Leon from trying to convince the kid from sitting this one out. Although, in all honesty, Leon could understand where Sora was coming from. Between the sudden disappearance of one of your closest friends and the equally sudden and mysterious reappearance of another who was supposed to be dead, it was a little unsurprising that Sora was feeling confused and in need of answers. Leon, on the other hand, was wondering why it was always the supposedly simple cases that ended up turning into hideously complicated messes. He tried to tell himself that whatever was discovered, he wasn't going to remain involved any longer than the two days he'd agreed, but there was an irritating sense that Leon was going to get dragged into this case whether he liked it or not.

With a mental shake and a firm inner reminder that no money equalled no further involvement regardless of what he discovered today, Leon rang the small brass bell beside the heavy oak front door. There was a buzzing sound from inside and then a crackling noise through the speaker grill set above the bell.

"Name?"

"Squall Leonheart. I have an appointment with Dr Hades," Leon announced into the panel.

The front door clicked loudly. "Please proceed to the foyer. Someone will meet you there shortly."

Leon and Sora glanced at each other briefly before Leon pushed the door open and the pair entered the building. Just beyond the front door was another pair of re-enforced glass doors. As Leon pushed closed the front door behind them, the glass doors clicked unlocked. The second set of doors opened out into a richly furnished entrance foyer with a glossy marble floor. Leon took in the décor briefly before leaving Sora to gawk over the paintings and sculptures at greater length while he examined the security that had been so carefully hidden behind the expensive visual diversions.

The manner in which every exit out of the foyer where they were stood was blocked by two sets of doors, one white-lacquered wood with bronze handles and the other glass, was a good example. The glass to the inner set of doors had the lack of surface texture that informed Leon immediately that it was toughened and not about to break very easily. There was also a small bronze square between the two sets of doors with a small button that looked like a light switch. It wasn't though, the doors were all obviously set to an airlock system and the second set would automatically lock when the first were opened and unlock when the other set of doors had closed. It was a standard addition to any institution housing imbalanced, but still able-bodied patients. Most however didn't have a small grille panel between the two sets of doors that Leon was fairly certain was there to administer some kind of sleeping gas.

There were more panels scattered around the foyer itself, usually concealed behind plants or statues. Leon was heading over to one to discretely have a closer look when the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps called his and Sora's attention to the double set of doors on the north wall of the room. Moments later, a tall, thin figure in a white coat all but ran through the first set of doors and collided with the glass set after not waiting for the original pair to close. With a shake of the head the figure paused long enough to close one set before finally making it into the foyer in a burst of nervous energy. "I'm late, aren't I? I'm so sorry! I don't know what happened with the time…" The young man paused to stare at them both for a moment before panic crossed his gaunt face. "There're two of you! Oh dear, I was only expecting one."

Sora seemed too taken aback to say anything, so Leon calmly stepped in to cut off the newcomer's stream of fretting. "If it's going to be a problem, Sora will be happy to wait in the foyer." From Sora's expression, it was clear he would be far from happy with such an arrangement, but the kid still had the sense to keep quiet, so Leon continued by offering his hand to the other man. "Squall Leonheart."

"Oh! Ah … Nick. I'm Dr Hades' personal assistant. Lackey you might say, ha ha! Ha ha!" Nick hurriedly waggled Squall's hand up and down a couple of times before stepping away and running two hands through his hair, smoothing down the already slick style. "Um … I don't see any harm in letting both of you see Dr Hades. Unless you're here to admit this young man to our care? Ha ha! Ha ha! Just a joke, sorry."

Leon and Sora exchanged looks. "I'm Sora," the teenager introduced himself as he was also subjected to a brief handshake. "I'm the one who hired Leon to look into this case."

"Case?" Nick all but squeaked, looking towards Leon in alarm. "You're not here to try and set up an appeal for one of the patients, are you? Dr Hades hates it when people try to interfere with his patients."

"We just want to find out a bit more about one of them," Sora reassured the man, obviously fearing that the constant heightened nerves might lead to Nick having a heart attack in front of him.

"Oh. Well… that's alright then," Nick drummed his fingers absently against each other a moment. "Right! I'll take you straight up to see Dr Hades." Turning, the white-coated assistant hurried over to a different set of doors and opened the first set of the airlock. "This way please!"

Sora leaned in towards Leon as the pair made their way to join Nick. "You sure he's not a patient himself?"

"He's wearing a white coat," Leon murmured back.

Sora didn't look fully convinced. "Maybe he stole it off the real doctor he killed."

Leon snorted but didn't reply as they reached Nick's anxiously hovering figure. With a brief smile at both of them, Nick immediately turned and led them through the airlock. The other side of the wooden doors revealed a long corridor lined with numbered doors that also had combination locks to each side. The rich carpets of earlier had been discarded in favour of a more hospital like linoleum flooring and white walls.

Nick glanced over his shoulder as he strode briskly down the corridor and noticed the interested glances of the two visitors. "These rooms are generally where we hold the art classes for those of our patients that have proven themselves capable of interacting with others to at least a certain extent. Art can be very therapeutic, you know. It allows patients to express themselves in ways they might not be capable of vocally. In the other direction are the gym and exercise and combat rooms."

"Combat rooms?" Leon questioned. "Is that a wise idea when your patients are criminally insane?"

Nick scowled over his shoulder briefly. "It's all supervised by our highly qualified staff," he informed Leon somewhat sniffily. "And healthy bodies make for healthy minds."

"I see," Leon murmured. Beside him, Sora seemed less impressed with the idea of insane and very physically fit criminals running around the building. There was a distinct tinge of apprehension in the teenager's expression and Leon had a suspicion that the kid was reconsidering his defiant argument that he was going to see Cloud Strife no matter what Leon may think about the matter.

They were led up a flight of stairs at the end of the corridor and through another set of airlock doors that brought them into a very lavishly furnished corridor. This was clearly where the administration work was carried out and the hum of various computers and other electronics provided low amount of background noise. There were a few members of staff walking around, using carrying stacks of paperwork, but no one seemed inclined to stop and chat with their colleagues.

Nick led them through the corridor to the office that sat at the far end with a small desk in front of it and to the left. Moving behind the desk, Nick rummaged through some of the paperwork that had accumulated until he uncovered the telephone system. Hitting a button, Nick held the receiver to his ear via his shoulder as he busied himself with polishing the Personal Assistant plaque that sat at the front of his desk. "Ah! Good morning Dr Hades. There's a Squall Leonheart here to see you. Yes! I'll send him straight in, Sir."

Replacing the phone, Nick gestured to Leon and Sora. "Just knock and enter."

Nodding his understanding, Leon proceeded to do just that with Sora close behind him. He stepped in a large and spacious office that still managed to seem very dark. No doubt due to the fact that everything inside was either grey stone or black leather. Sat at the far end of the office and regarding Leon and Sora with an expression that could only be described as a smirk, was Hades.

The man looked singularly unsuitable to be running a mental asylum, his dark suit and shirt hung loosely on his exceedingly tall frame and gave him the air of a used car salesman. This wasn't helped by the heavily gelled hair that stood up from his head in what could only be described as waves or the sneering smile that highlighted a mouth full of sharp teeth.

Making no move to rise from his chair, Hades waved at the pair of seats before the desk. "Come on in boys and pull up a pew. What can I do for you today, hmm?"

Pausing only for a moment at the overly casual greeting, Leon sat in the indicated chair and pulled out his notepad. "We're here to try and find out a little more about one of your patients. A Cloud Strife."

Hades snorted. "Blondie? Well he's certainly loony. And I am talking off the scale _nuts_," Hades leaned forward over the desk, creating a sense of imparting some gossip. "Get him in the right mood and you can probably convince him he's a chicken. Must have been dropped hard on his head as a brat, I'm telling you. Utterly loco."

"Is that the technical term for it these days?" came Sora's voice. Looking over at the teenager sat to the side of him, Leon saw that the boy appeared shocked – no doubt having expected a more sombre attitude.

Clearing his throat and thereby directing Hades' attention back to him rather than the teen he was currently glaring at, Leon tapped his pen on the notepad. "We're investigating a case which seems to connected to one of the girls Strife confessed to murdering five years ago. However not knowing the details of the confession or Strife's mental state is making it hard to determine how important our current lead is."

Hades stared at the pair of them with a narrowed eyed, considering stare that made Leon uncomfortable. Just when the urge to fidget under that look was becoming unbearable, Hades leaned back in his seat and pulled at cigar from his jacket pocket. "You wanna see Spikey, be my guest. I think Hojo's finished with him for the day anyway." He lit the cigar and puffed at it a couple of time before leaning forwards once more and jabbing at his own phone to call his PA. "Nick? Take these boys down to see Strife and see if you can't find someone to fill them in on blondie's quirks. We don't want another incident like last time."

Glancing at the pair of them, Hades waved a hand to show they were dismissed. "Staff Nurse Payne's on his way up. You got any questions, ask him."

Sora sat in the chair. "The nurse's name is _Payne_?"

Hades studied his fingernails. "Hilarious, isn't it?" he deadpanned. "We had a Doctor Slaughter too, but he quit last month"

A knock on the door indicated that their escort had arrived and Leon and Sora rose to their feet. Leon inclined his head in the smallest of nods before turning. "Thank you for your time, Dr Hades."

Outside the door was a short and somewhat rotund young man with an unusually flushed face and dressed in the standard white and blue of a male nurse. He appeared deep in a somewhat worried conversation with Hades' PA, but the two abruptly shut up when they saw Sora and Leon. The nurse offered his hand to shake. "Chris Payne. I'm a nurse on the ward where we put all the special cases. I hear you want to pay Strife a visit?"

"We'd like to talk to him if he's capable of it," Leon confirmed.

The nurse shrugged. "You can try. He's in one of his quiet moods at the moment, but at least that means he won't try to attack you like he did to the last one that came visiting."

"Attack?" Leon queried.

Payne sighed, an effort that involved a lot of air gusting through his substantial cheeks. "Strife has a severe reaction to a people with a certain colouring. Namely, green eyes and very pale hair. It's not usually a problem as we just get anyone with those features to cover their hair up, but the kid took his off too early. Strife got a peek at the hair and all hell broke loose."

"Kid?" Leon repeated, exchanging a look with a remarkably pale looking Sora. "Wasn't a teenager named Nakamura by any chance?"

"Nah, said his name was Riku," replied the nurse absently as they set off down several flights of stairs. "Probably came after listening to those musicians that play over at Seventh Heaven. You used to get quite a few teenage fans showing up, but never more than once."

"What do musicians have to do with a serial killer?" Leon asked, idly making a few notes as they headed into the basement level. "Is this some sort of new status badge for bands; adopting their own lunatic?"

Payne laughed at that, a reaction that sent all of his considerable bulk into perpetual, wobbling motion. "Almost. They knew him. Claim the confession was all a lie; well that's according to their singer and she's loud enough for the rest of them. You know, the usual Romantic stuff that sounds really good when it's about something you know nothing about in reality. Still, one look at Strife and it's clear he's nuts."

"So he reacts badly to certain people," Leon said, still scribbling away. "Any idea who it is they're reminding him of?"

"It's not like he really talks that much," Payne admitted with a shrug. "We just work it out from what we see. And what we see is stark, raving lunacy."

"Any other quirks we should know about before heading in?" Leon enquired. "I don't want to have wasted my day in coming out here only to trigger an attack of the sulks in this guy."

Payne shrugged again. "It changes. When he was first admitted, the guy couldn't stand the dark. And I mean, absolutely couldn't stand it. We had to keep his room flooded with light no matter what time it was or he'd absolutely flip out. Hojo started treating him not long after, and suddenly he switched and refused any light. Insisted on his room being pitch black the whole time. No one could figure out why he was okay with absolute darkness after the whole light thing."

Leon frowned. "That makes no sense," he commented, even though a small part of his mind was stubbornly underlining this section in his notebook.

"That's Strife," Payne sighed. "He's also got a thing about doors. Seems to think there are hidden ones in his room. If you don't keep him sedated, he'll knock on the walls until his knuckles are bleeding and raw. Then there's the other personality."

"He's got multiple personalities?" Sora murmured, getting increasingly less keen on the idea of visiting someone so obviously unhinged. "Are they insane as well?"

Payne shrugged. "Insanely upbeat. But also a lot more violent. Takes offence very quickly. Basically, if he's talking in more than two words, he's about two words away from getting angry at you."

Leon sighed and pinched his nose. He was not getting paid enough for this.

They were led through several more sets of doors into a sterile white corridor. The doors along this section of the hospital were more widely spaced and carried a number of sturdy-looking combination pad locks. There were also more of the grille panels from the earlier airlocks and several panic buttons, if Leon was any judge. He raised an inner eyebrow at the additional measures as he wondered why, if the residents were so obviously dangerously unhinged, they weren't simply left heavily sedated. And if they were, then why the added security?

Payne came to a halt outside a door roughly half of the way along the hallway. Pausing, he stretched up slightly to peer in through the small panel of toughened glass at the interior. "Ah, it seems he's had enough of the dark today. You'll be wishing for sunglasses in about three minutes, but at least you'll be able to see him." With a brief smile at Leon and Sora, the nurse quickly tapped a string of numbers into the combination pad before opening the door and beckoning them in. "Come on in."

With a glance at Leon that betrayed his misgivings, Sora was the next one to enter the room leaving Leon to bring up the rear. The strength of the lights reflecting against the white interior of the room made Leon narrow his eyes until they adjusted to the gleam. The walls themselves did not appear to be padded, contrary to popular opinion on such places, but painted in a pure white that leached any sense of warmth from the surroundings. The quantity of the lights that appeared to illuminate every last inch of the room in combination with that colour were almost painful in their intensity. It took several moments of squinting and rapid blinking before Leon's eyes adjusted.

A single bed sat neatly made in one corner of the room not far from a partially transparent door that clearly led to a bathroom. Sat on the bed and watching them with no discernible reaction was an extremely slender blond man that appeared to be in his early to mid twenties. Leon stared at him for a moment, wondering what he was doing in the room, before he realised that the pale figure with the bizarrely spiked hair had to be Cloud Strife.

Leon's first reaction was sheer disbelief that anyone so frail in appearance could have the strength, let alone the capacity, to murder a string of young girls. Strife looked too weak to open a jam jar. But a moment more of observation saw Leon picking out the telltale curves of lean muscle. There wasn't a scrap of fat on the other man and Leon was fairly certain that Strife had an intensive work-out regime at the gym that had been mentioned as they entered the institute.

Strife had been sitting with his back against the corner of the room, staring down at the knees that were drawn up against his chest. At their entrance, he looked up and Leon noticed a pair of blue eyes that appeared almost luminescent due to the paleness of the surrounding skin and hair. Strife stared at them blankly, taking in first the nurse and Sora, before his gaze flickered briefly when he studied Leon.

Strife frowned, an almost imperceptible narrowing of the eyes combined with a faint tug down of a full lower lip. The gesture was more felt than observed; Leon simply knew that the other man did not appreciate the intrusion into his space.

With a casual disregard that clearly displayed a practiced comfort in Strife's presence, Payne moved towards the bed in the corner of the room. "Visitors for you today, Strife. Hope you're feeling chatty because watching you glare at strangers for an hour gets awfully repetitive. Anyway, show me your hand, Doc says you've been smashing it up again."

His gaze not leaving Leon's, Strife wordlessly extended a hand that was already wrapped in bandages. There was staining across the knuckles, where the wraps were heaviest and Payne made a noise of displeasure when he saw them. "Great. Don't tell me I'm going to have to start washing the walls in here again…"

Leaving the nurse to his muttering and Leon to his staring contest with the madman, Sora cleared his throat. "Um… good morning? We're here to ask you some questions, if that's okay."

Strife's unnatural blue gaze shifted to Sora, though an expression was still not forthcoming on the blond's face.

Stretching his mouth wide in what would no doubt have passed for a grin were it not for the obvious case of nerves, Sora rubbed a hand across the back of his neck and through the brown spikes of his hair. "Ah … well … see my friend's gone missing and I think you might be able to help. 'Cause … uh … I think _he_ was looking for this other friend of mine and so he came to see you as you … uh … you know…"

"Killed her," Leon finished for the teenager, getting irritated with the amount of circumlocution. "At least, you confessed to her murder."

Strife's head tilted slightly to one side as he blinked at Leon.

Leon waited for a moment before closing his eyes and pinching at his nose. _I will not lose my patience,_ he told himself firmly. _This is not a complete waste of my time … who am I kidding, the guy seems a complete vegetable._

"He's gone?"

Leon's head snapped up at the quiet words spoken in an unknown voice that had to be Strife's. It was softer sounding than he'd expected, but lacking any inflection or tone. The blond was staring at Leon again, that faint frown from before slightly more prominent. "Disappeared," Leon confirmed. "We're trying to track his movements."

Strife's eyes lost their focus for a moment before he turned to look at the hand that was being re-bandaged by Payne. "He's left."

"Left to go where?" Sora asked. "We know he came to see you. Was it about Kairi? Is she still alive or did you really kill her? There's pictures…"

"I heard the door open," Strife muttered mainly to himself.

"Just now?" Sora asked. "That was us."

When Strife made no more attempt to respond, Leon sighed in frustration. "This is getting us nowhere."

Returning to where they stood near the centre of the room, the nurse Payne shrugged. "I did warn you. This is actually the most chatty I've seen him in weeks – excluding the screaming fits, of course. You nearly had a conversation."

Leon shot the man a quelling glare, in no mood to be patronised about the level of success that they were having. With the fake cheery smile wiped off Payne's face, Leon tapped Sora on the shoulder. "This is useless. He's not going to tell us anything useful. We're still completely in the dark."

"Dark…" Strife murmured.

Sora stared at Strife helplessly for a few moments before giving in to Leon's firm grip on his shoulder and allowing himself to be turned towards the door. "I just want to know Riku's alright," he told Leon somewhat hopelessly as he passed by the taller brunet.

Leon nodded. "Don't worry, kid. There's other leads and I'm still investigating." Turning to follow Sora, Leon took a step away from Strife.

"The shadows," Strife suddenly called out after him, his voice sounding more engaged than at any point previously. "Tell that other one to watch the shadows. They're dangerous."

Leon looked back over his shoulder in surprise, but the blond had already resolutely dropped his gaze back to his knees and was clearly determined to ignore their continuing presence. Seeing no other option, Leon turned back towards the exit and left the room.

Back outside the corridor seemed positively gloomy after Strife's room. Leon had to wait again for his eyes to readjust. He noted somewhat irritably that Sora seemed to find the transition a lot easier than him and reflected sourly that he was clearly getting old. Turning his attention back to Payne, as soon as he could focus on the nurse reasonably clearly, Leon nodded his head slightly. "Thank you for your time, but I believe we're finished here for today."

Payne didn't try to hide his relief. "Good, I've got to report to Hojo about Strife's level of awareness and he really doesn't like visitors. I'll show you out first."

"Thanks," Leon replied, clamping a warning hand on Sora's shoulder when the teenager looked about to protest at the end to the visit. He kept that hand on Sora's shoulder the whole time they were led back to the entrance foyer and then waved from the building.

One back in daylight, Sora shrugged the hand off and turned to face Leon. "I knew he was crazy, but I still thought he'd be more help than that," Sora complained. "Now how am I supposed to find out what happened to Riku? You're only working for me until the end of today and then I'm on my own again."

Leon ignored Sora, flipping instead through the notes he'd made so far. "Strange," he mused.

"What?" Sora was all but trying to climb Leon's shoulder in order to read the notebook for some potential clue. "What is it?"

"Riku must have taken something about Strife to heart," Leon told the kid. "They both seemed to want to avoid shadows. Strife had his room lit up like an operating theatre and Riku had every possible light in his apartment switched on when I went to investigate." Leon flipped the book closed and tapped it against his other forearm. "I wonder what was said…"

"Should we ask to go back in?" Sora said, dread and anticipation hiding behind his words in equal measures.

Leon surveyed the building, mentally weighing the option up. "Not today," he answered. "There's somewhere else I want to try first."

"Oh?" Sora fell into step alongside Leon with the energetic bounce from their first meeting restored, no doubt due to the possibility of a further clue. "Where's that?"

"The nurse mentioned something about a local band being quite adamant that Strife was innocent … at least of killing kids," Leon answered. "I want to head by Seventh Heaven and see just what it is they're saying."

"Seventh Heaven?" Sora repeated. "That's in a really rough part of town."

Leon rolled his eyes. "Figures."


End file.
